The U.S. ladies’s hockey crew will play for Olympic gold medal : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6510x4340+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8b%2Ffd%2F110a64854363a2fbcb5d35a51f23%2Fgettyimages-2261534680.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6510x4340+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8b%2Ffd%2F110a64854363a2fbcb5d35a51f23%2Fgettyimages-2261534680.jpg" class="img" alt="Team USA forward Taylor Heise, #27, celebrates scoring her team's second goal during Monday's Olympic semifinal match against Sweden. After a 5-0 win, the U.S. now advances to play in Thursday's gold medal match. " fetchpriority="high"/> Staff USA ahead Taylor Heise, #27, celebrates scoring her crew's second objective throughout Monday's Olympic semifinal match towards Sweden. After a 5-0 win, the U.S. now advances to play in Thursday's gold medal match. Alexander Nemenov/AFP by way of Getty Photos disguise caption

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Alexander Nemenov/AFP by way of Getty Photos MILAN — Earlier than Monday night time, it may need been uncouth to confess the objective for the U.S. ladies's hockey crew has been an Olympic gold medal all alongside.

Now, after their sixth consecutive win has secured them a spot in Thursday night time's gold medal match, there isn't a cause anymore for the crew to faux in any other case.

"Now that we're right here, that is the bullseye," stated coach John Wroblewski after Monday's win.

The U.S. entered the 2026 Olympic Video games as favorites to win the gold medal after a sequence of dominating wins over their rivals, Canada, the defending gold medal winners, over the course of the previous yr.

The Individuals have lived as much as that promise on this Olympic run to date. They've outscored their opponents 31 targets to 1 by way of six matches, the final 5 of which have been shutouts, an Olympic file. And their undefeated file features a 5-0 win over the Canadians, their seemingly opponent in Thursday's remaining pending the outcomes of a Monday semifinal match-up towards Switzerland.

"Our play is simply going to go up from right here, actually. I do not even suppose we're on the peak," stated Hayley Scamurra, whose second interval objective pushed the rating to 5-0.

Within the Individuals' semifinal victory over Sweden, Staff USA confirmed off their offensive capabilities throughout a four-minute stretch on the finish of the second interval. In fast succession, they doubled the rating from 2-0 to 4-0 — first on a superbly positioned wrist shot by Abbey Murphy, adopted by an Laila Edwards rocket from the blue line that tipped off Kendall Coyne Schofield's stick.

In a determined transfer to avoid wasting their shot at a gold medal, Sweden swapped out goaltenders — just for Britta Curl-Salemme to ship a go throughout the crease into the ready stick of Scamurra for the ultimate objective of the sport.

"Possibly immediately we would have liked a plexiglass in entrance of our web to remain within the recreation," Swedish coach Ulf Lundberg stated afterward.

That degree of offense mixed with six dominating performances by the crew's two beginning goaltenders, Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Phillips, has led to a excessive degree of confidence. "We will inform once we're on a roll. We will inform once we're buzzing," stated defenseman Cayla Barnes after the sport.

"The crew is enjoying so, so effectively in entrance of me defensively. They're making my job simple, making the performs in entrance of me predictable so I can do my job," stated Frankel, who performed everything of Monday's recreation. "Any time I can deal with my job and allow them to do theirs, that is why we're discovering a lot success."

The U.S. has gained two earlier Olympic gold medals, one in 1998 and the opposite in 2018. Canada has gained all 5 different Olympic tournaments.

An American gold medal would cap the historic profession of crew captain Hilary Knight, 36, who's enjoying in her file fifth Olympic Video games. And it will give a brand new technology of younger expertise on Staff USA — together with the 22-year-old Laila Edwards to 23-year-olds Abbey Murphy and Caroline Harvey — their first golden achievement of what USA Hockey hopes can be a protracted and fruitful nationwide crew profession collectively.

"It is so essential that they've gotten that point and we have given them these alternatives as a result of they're so assured after they get on the market. You'll by no means assume they're 20, 21, 22 years outdated," stated Taylor Heise, 25. "I study a lot from them, and so they maintain me younger at coronary heart as effectively."